Nvidia RTX is seeing an unusually high number of failure reports

Nvidia RTX hasn’t been the smoothest launch for the firm, with its flagship real-time ray-tracing held back due to Microsoft’s delayed Windows 10 October update and no titles currently supporting feature. It seems that there might be bigger problems afoot, however as an increasing number of reports show an unusual failure rate with in RTX family.

Affected users have flocked to the Nvidia forums to explain their issues, which seem to include graphical artifacting, blue screen crashes and some cards being completely dead on arrival. Nvidia’s RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition seems to be the main culprit, but there have been numerous reports explaining similar issues with other models and even aftermarket releases.

Both Nvidia and the community at large are investigating the issue, with many speculating that it could possibly stem from either larger die size or GDDR6 memory. The RTX 2080 Ti’s die is 754mm^2 within the Founders Edition or more in aftermarket hardware, which could indicate why the problems plague that card more than most. That being said, examinations are turning up that Micron’s GDDR6 memory is exceeding the 95°C safety limit, potentially explaining the true root cause.

At this time, Nvidia refutes that the number of affected users is increasing, which instead suggests that those experiencing failure are simply more vocal about the issues. Without access to RMA numbers, it’s difficult to discern whether or not the return rate is as expected. The firm did go on to emphasise that it is currently “working with each user individually,” as they undergo the unfortunately lengthy RMA process.

KitGuru Says: It’s worth remembering that Nvidia set out on uncharted territory with the addition of GDDR6 memory and real-time ray-tracing technology, perhaps making the issues a little more understandable. Still, given how expensive the cards are and that some end users will have flogged their original GPUs to embrace the new tech, it’s not ideal. How do you feel about the reported RTX failures? Have you been affected?